Local congressmen weigh in on stimulus push, earmarks

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO 
Members of the San Diego County congressional delegation took issue with President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package yesterday – although for different reasons – and defended their use of the controversial earmark process.

“What can you say to describe the largest, almost absurd, spending project in history?” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista.

Four of the five local House members – Issa, Democrat Bob Filner of San Diego, and Republicans Brian Bilbray of Carlsbad and Duncan D. Hunter of Lakeside – fielded questions at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce's annual congressional luncheon yesterday at the Holiday Inn on the Bay on Harbor Drive.

Filner wryly noted the irony of his being aligned with the chamber and other business groups in support of the $787 billion stimulus package.

“First, let me take some cheap political shots, then I'll get to the substance,” Filner said. “All the organized business community came to me and everybody else in favor of the stimulus package. I supported it. These guys, I think all of them, voted against it. And yet all those groups support these guys. I can never figure that out.”

Filner said that although he voted for the bill, he would have been more comfortable with it had it been put together differently.

“We hope and we pray and we cross our fingers that the jobs that were promised in this come rather quickly,” the Democrat said. “I would have liked to see more money directed into job creation. I would have liked to see, frankly, more directed to communities and not bureaucracy.”

The three Republicans leveled different criticisms at the plan.

Hunter complained about how the package was rushed through Congress. “I had no say whatsoever, neither did anyone else, any representative, except maybe Mr. Filner, in determining where that money went for their district,” Hunter said.

Bilbray objected to the way the money is being divided up. “We're not going to get our fair share,” he said. “California is going to get shortchanged on this one way or the other.”

Issa contended that too much of the money is being spent in ways that won't boost the economy. “You have to lower your expectations about what will actually come to us, because it just isn't that kind of stimulus package, unfortunately,” Issa said.

All four defended their approaches to the process known as earmarking, where members of Congress insert funding into the budget for certain projects.

“We all know what happened with the abuses in the past,” said Bilbray, an apparent reference to former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, the Rancho Santa Fe Republican who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion in 2006 after admitting to taking $2.4 million in bribes. He was sentenced to eight years and four months in federal prison.

“So I do not support any earmark that hasn't been specifically requested either by a general, a mayor, a county supervisor, a governor (or) some public agency who will put their name by it,” Bilbray said.

Filner said the practice is often misunderstood.

“The earmark process does not add money to the whole budget,” he said. “It takes money that the bureaucracy was going to spend and says we're going to direct it in ways that we as Congress people know best.”

Hunter is seeking money for two Predator drones, saying military personnel overseas are clamoring for more of the unmanned planes.

“If I have two Predators that are brand new that have to be appropriated outside the regular budget, that's not a bad thing, and I'm not going to stop doing it,” Hunter said.

Only Issa has sworn off requesting future earmarks, at least until Congress reforms the process more than it has.

“Although there are five people in your delegation that I think are squeaky clean in not having a link between asking for earmarks and political contributions or personal gain, that hasn't always been the case,” Issa said. “But let me assure you there are members of Congress who absolutely have a quid pro quo relationship.”